


Family of Hope

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 11:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8749537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: When an assassination attempt on Alderaan causes Ahsoka to take custody of one small princess, the galaxy begins to evolve in new ways, as former Jedi and future ones form a family bond that can change fate.





	

At first, Ahsoka was afraid she had brought Imps down on the ruling family of Alderaan as she heard the sounds of battle in the outer hallways of the palace. She had come here to recover from a mission gone wrong in a nearby system, but thought she had dodged them all.

Then, as she made her way to her ally, she realized the forces attacking were wearing the colors and uniforms of one of the other Royal Families. She did not get involved, trying to reach Bail and Breha to protect them. She found them swiftly enough, with guards, and both of them armed… as well as their young daughter. Bail's eyes lit as he saw Ahsoka, while Breha crouched and said something swiftly, softly, to the girl, too low for even Ahsoka to hear under the tumult assaulting her montrals.

"Fulcrum, you must get our daughter away from here," Bail said fiercely. "Take her far from here; keep her out of the Core, even if we survive this onslaught."

"I can't just leave you in need!" she argued immediately, shocked by the idea.

"We don't have time for this, Fulcrum," Bail said, even as Breha hugged the small child tightly. "Take her and go!"

Ahsoka would have preferred to stand and fight, injured as she was, but there was something in Bail's urgency, something in his eyes, that demanded her obedience to his wishes. She waited as the child turned, latching onto her father's legs, and then he crouched to hug her as well, before giving her a small push to the Togruta.

"Trust in Fulcrum, Leia. No matter what. She will guard you."

Leia nodded solemnly, then let the tall, graceful warrior lift her, latching arms around the neck, legs hooking as solidly as they could around her waist so that Ahsoka only needed to support her with one arm to make the run to her ship. It would be a tight fit, but the girl was small.

"Arseven, get the ship hot," Ahsoka said into her comm, confused still by this sudden demand on her in the face of a threat like this. Yet, Bail always had reasons.

+++

Leia was an eerie child, Ahsoka decided quickly. As many younglings as she had seen in war-zones and out of them, she'd never seen a child quite as self-possessed as Leia Organa. She had kept her head through being evacuated, had put on a stony face, despite being so young, at the idea of her parents possibly being dead.

The still injured and very confused Ahsoka Tano had turned far from the Core, heading to the Rim to hide on a rock out there. The planet had little to lure the Empire in, but had enough of a 'mind your own business' mentality that Ahsoka could mostly hide there. She stayed scarfed and hooded in public, made Leia do the same, while she had hidden Arseven and ship outside of town. Finding a place to stay had been easy enough, and a little application of the Force went a long way toward obscuring their identities further.

"You're a Jedi," Leia finally said. "Like Daddy's friend, Ylenic It'kla."

"Not exactly, little one," Ahsoka said as they were settling into the room she had hired. "I was once in the Jedi Order, yes. But then something happened, and I chose to leave them, several months before they were killed. Or most of them were," Ahsoka admitted, having heard stories of some surviving past that awful purge. "I don't think I ever met Master It'kla, but I knew of him."

Leia moved to where Ahsoka was changing her bandages, small hands taking supplies and confidently beginning to help. "Sabé taught me," she said softly, trying not to cry at her worries over her family, including her governess.

"Sabé? Oh… that's a name I haven't heard in a while." Ahsoka let the child help her, while racing over the connections to her past. Why had Bail been so insistent… why was Sabé known to the girl… why did the girl know one of the two Jedi that had taken refuge on Alderaan?

She looked at the child with the Force, opening herself up to it fully, seeking answers. It took prodding, as Leia's signature had been muted, by outside influence, but Ahsoka had learned skill and patience. The whole time they changed bandages, her mind was untying knots and seeking truth.

When it exploded on her senses, Ahsoka rocked back some, eyes blowing wide open, before tears rose.

"Fulcrum?"

The Togruta rested her hand on Leia's shoulder, lightly, and made herself smile. "Shh, little one. Finding the answers I needed in the Force made me see things I will share with you as you grow. Until then, I need to say some words, a promise to you, alright?"

"I suppose," the little princess (twice over, Ahsoka knew now) told her.

" _Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad_ ," Ahsoka said in Mando'a, her voice reverential as she bound herself to the daughter of her dearest friends, as Bail had entrusted her on purpose with the child. Even if the Alderaanian couple survived, Leia would be Ahsoka's to raise, because of the power inside her.

"What does it mean?" Leia asked. "What language is that?"

"My third language, Mando'a," Ahsoka said warmly. "And it means 'I know your name as my child', as I am pledging myself to your nurturing, your protection, and your training, Leia Organa of Alderaan. I knew the man and woman that gave you your life. I am honored to be friends of the parents you were raised by. And I will do all I can for you out of loyalty to them all."

Leia's eyes widened. "You knew my birth parents?"

"Indeed, little princess, for the Force has revealed that secret to me." Ahsoka gave her a gentle smile. "Do you accept my care of you?"

"Father and Mother both wished it, so yes." Leia's chin quivered then, and Ahsoka opened her arms, letting the child slide into her hold after only a moment's hesitation. "Do you think they lived?"

"I don't know. But I will learn, _ad'ika_."

+++

The crackdown on the Rebels only served to push more systems over toward them when it was highly publicized that the Empire had financed and aided the coup on Alderaan. Ahsoka carefully did not go seeking the government-in-exile. A few strategic messages had let her learn that Leia's parents had suffered horrible losses, but Breha had made it off their world by the strength of her adherents. 

Of Bail Organa, Ahsoka could learn nothing. His death was unconfirmed, which boded poorly for Leia's survival. If he was in Imperial hands, her existence might be threatened now. Ahsoka took herself away from the Rebellion for a time, going as far from it as she could get. Dathomir, normally a safe-haven for her, was out of the question with an impressionable Force-strong child. 

She managed to trade out her small fighter for a scout, and promptly set Arseven to rigging it more for better navigation and speed. She opened herself to the Force to guide her steps, living mostly aboard her ship with the child, until she knew where she should go.

Tatooine was not the first choice by a long-shot, but she kept dreaming of sands and twin suns, usually with Leia tucked in close along her side. Fortunately, the child had taken well to her, and was being resilient about the constant travel. Nor had she reacted poorly to the one fighting escape they had made from an Inquisitor, when Ahsoka had to resort to killing to get them free.

With a course set for Tatooine, Ahsoka began to breathe easier. The Empire didn't usually contest Hutt territory, and while she knew there was a bounty on her head, Ahsoka felt confident she could keep them safe. She knew the ins and outs of rat-holes like that.

Now she just had to find a way to make Leia look less remarkable, as the slave trade was thriving, and Leia was at just the age some preferred to kidnap. The idea of cutting her hair was hurting Ahsoka, who could see in it the mark of her birth-mother. 

"You're looking sad again, Ahsoka," Leia said, matter-of-factly. "Why?"

"Where we are going, there are slavers. While no child is ever safe in such places, girls are preferred, and you, my little princess, cannot pass for a boy with those braids. No matter how we arrange them. Or at least, I can't think of any human populations that have such long hair on their boys."

Leia brightened. "I know some! It will mean braiding many braids, but there are worlds where such things are a mark of status!"

Ahsoka smiled at her for that. "Then let's find one that you can pass for, and we will get your hair and clothing to match such a place!"

Leia pulled the closest pad over and started searching, as they began transforming her into someone new. Ahsoka, who had already given up her trademark headdress, applied herself to refashioning her armor again, so that she would be less recognizable. Somehow, they would make this work.

+++

Raza Davri and her ward, Le Anan, made very little splash in the society of Mos Eisley when they landed. The hardest part had been rigging the scout vessel with a slave control that Arseven could handle. Ahsoka had begun giving Leia piloting lessons, but Arseven was a hell of a back-up plan, given that the droid had survived the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire. The city was just a stop over; Ahsoka planned to barter and trade for enough supplies to go find them a place somewhere in the desert to survive, a place to come back to so Leia could train safely, but there was no way she could fully walk away from the Rebellion.

Leia would not either. Despite her youth, she earnestly wanted to help, and if that meant moving into an intel listening position for the Rebels, to keep the girl out of direct violence for now, Ahsoka would do that. The cover identities were expertly forged, not that many on Tatooine would check, but they would hold up to travel in other systems. Raza Davri was a licensed merchant, and had taken on a ward as part of an honor debt to a family that had died in civic unrest.

"This sand is getting everywhere," Leia griped. "It's just so gritty and miserable."

"I know, Le," Ahsoka answered her, even as she had to struggle to contain her memories. Another time, a different planet, but one with creeping sand everywhere had provoked similar words from Anakin. While Ahsoka had never learned the full story of why her master hated Tatooine, she knew it ran deep and personal.

Given her suspicions on who Darth Vader really was, maybe that was why the Force had steered her here. She let that settle in just before a prickle of awareness had her pulling Leia in behind her legs as she turned, letting the voluminous robes she wore hide the child from the eyes of a man staring across the distance of a street at them.

Her instant protective instinct, however, was knocked violently to the side as she realized she knew just who that was staring at them with shock on his own aging features.

"Le, stay close," Ahsoka told her ward, pleased to feel the girl tangle a hand in her robes as a physical reassurance of obedience. The Togruta began crossing the distance between them, and the man did not flee or just vanish. When Ahsoka was standing in front of him, taking in that she was taller than him now, she wasn't certain what to say.

She cautiously opened her Force sense, just as it seemed he was, and felt confusion, hope, worry… all of it mingled on her senses against the overwhelmingly familiar presence that was shot through with grief. In that moment, she knew there were no words, and threw her arms around his neck instead, startling him with her exuberance before he wrapped his own arms around her waist and just held on.

"Hello, dear one," he whispered softly. 

Ahsoka closed her eyes, and squeezed tighter.

+++

Supplies had been acquired, then they had gone with 'Ben' as the old Master was known. By common assent, they did not speak of the past, not even on the flight back, with his speeder-bike awkwardly loaded alongside the supplies aboard her scout. Leia kept looking at the man, trying to puzzle something out for herself, while Ahsoka let the man pilot them to his haven. 

Securing the ship, camouflaging it, took some time once they landed, but Leia scrambled eagerly to help, staying wrapped in her own robe against the suns that beat down even harder here in the Wastes. The three worked in quiet to get everything inside, though Ahsoka figured she and Leia would live on the ship mostly. The hovel was small but kept clean and tidy, another reminder of just who she had found. 

"So is this where all refugees from the Empire with personal ties to Vader hang out?" Ahsoka finally asked, once they had settled in the relative cool of his dwelling. Ben flinched, but looked from her to the girl, and back sadly. "I haven't actually told her what the Force told me, but I'm taking that look as confirmation about Vader," Ahsoka said, sagging forward, shoulders crumpling.

Leia was in her lap like a shot, knowing there were important things on the cusp of being revealed to her, but more concerned with her teacher, her guardian, registering as a nova of grief and pain on her growing awareness in the Force. "Shh, shh, Ahsoka, shh," she soothed, wrapping her small arms tight around the woman's neck and lekku, pressing their cheeks together, feeling the wetness sliding over them both as Ahsoka grieved.

"You didn't know for certain," Ben murmured, coming to where he could put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. 

"I… I think I did. But it was easier to doubt, than to believe that." Her eyes finally found his face, even as she kissed Leia's forehead. "Leia, this is going to be hard talk about your birth parents. It's going to be terrible, and probably scary. Would you rather we wait until you go to sleep?" She doubted asking Ben to speak in Mando'a was a good idea, after all.

"I have to know. Momma and Daddy both gave me to you, to protect, but how can we keep me safe, if I don't know the truth?" the girl asked seriously.

"Oh she is so like them all!" Ben said. "Bail and Breha and Padmé alike!" 

Leia's eyes went wide at the third name mentioned. "Daddy's friend? The one in the holo he always has near him? She's so beautiful. Momma said she was a great hero, and Sabé always reminded me of her."

Ahsoka nodded. "Yes, little one. Padmé Amidala was your mother. That Sabé was teaching you was probably because of that. They were almost like sisters," she added.

Leia took that in, locking it into her concept of how good she needed to be to live up to her parents. She then showed just how fast her mind was, as she looked at Ahsoka solemnly. "Who is Darth Vader to me, then?"

Ahsoka took a deep breath, held the child closer, and answered. "The man he was, before the suit, before he became a Sith, is most likely your father."

"Yes," Ben said quietly, confirming that with a choked pain in him.

Leia's eyes went wide, as she remembered the fearsome man in black polished armor and long, sweeping cape. "What happened?" she asked with a child's innocence, and a too-mature need to understand.

Ben closed his eyes, looking down. "I don't know, Leia. I know what physically happened, but I do not know how we got to where he became Vader," he told her. "Anakin Skywalker, though, was my friend, and your guardian's teacher. That part of him, that part is well-worth knowing and honoring."

Leia's eyes narrowed, as she put the idea that someone evil might have once been good. It was a lot to take in, a lot that didn't really make sense, but she'd keep trying to understand as she grew up.

+++

Leia was asleep, tucked away on a bed made for her that very evening, as Ben insisted he'd feel better if they stayed inside with him. He had cleared space and crafted it quickly from salvage material and a woven rug. Ahsoka had watched, vaguely amused to see her grand-master displaying such skills.

Now, though, she was sitting with him at the small table, sharing tea with him over the glow of a single, dim light.

"You're holding something back," she said softly. "Something about Leia. I can feel it at the edge of your presence."

"She has a brother," Ben told her, just as quiet. "Master Yoda and I separated the children, because together, their Force presence was easily as blinding as Anakin's had ever been. Bail took the girl… and I am terrified to hear what must have happened there, Ahsoka… while I brought the boy here to be raised by Anakin's stepbrother. Only, I have not been able to have the kind of regular influence on him that I should have kept."

"A brother?" Ahsoka sighed softly, then squared her shoulders. "I may have to push that issue then, Obi-Wan."

"Please… use Ben," he stressed to her, and she reached out, covering his hand with hers.

"Ben," she corrected herself. "She's lost her entire family and life she had known. If I can give her back something else, I will."

Ben smiled, snorting a little. "You will win the argument, I have no doubt." He squeezed her fingers, then took his hand and used it to gesture at her. "Look at you, all grown up and still so strong."

She snorted at him for that. "Might have a little more to grow, but maybe not. Other than the montrals." She sipped at her tea, then looked at him seriously. "I'm not pressing you tonight for what happened. Just like I'm in no shape to talk to you about what I did. But some night… we both will need to talk through the years apart, Ben."

He inclined his head. "Yes, we will. But you've grown wise; tonight is not the night." He glanced to the narrow couch, and then to his bed, slightly wider. "Take the bed?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "Never broke my habit of sleeping anywhere. I'll take another one of those rugs and curl up on the floor near Leia. She might finally nightmare here soon, given all she's been through."

"Alright, Ahsoka."

+++

Leia hadn't been certain about being left with Ben, but then he started showing her ways to use the Force to understand the bantha herd that ambled close to where they lived, and she was distracted enough to not resent Ahsoka leaving her. 

Then her guardian came back, and with her was a blond boy, just her own age… that she knew!

"I thought you were a dream!" overlapped the boy's "But you were a dream!"

Ben and Ahsoka exchanged a look, his chagrined and hers triumphant at the connection that obviously existed.

"Leia, meet Luke. Luke, meet Leia. Your _vod_."

Ben coughed. "Brother. And sister. In Basic, not Mando'a," he corrected gently. Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

"Gender." She snorted and then crouched to be more on level with the children. "So, do you two want to live together, or am I taking Luke back to his uncle and aunt?"

"NO!"

The twins emphatic denial of that idea had Ahsoka grinning like a fiend. "Alright then." She dropped to her knees on the hot sand, fully facing Luke, while Leia's eyes got big, and then she solemnly stepped back. " _Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad_ ," she told Luke, as she had to Leia. It was a duty, and an honor, in her heart to take on the raising and training of both twins, borne of her beloved brother and his chosen mate.

"What's that?" Luke asked.

"It means 'I know your name as my child'," Leia told him. "Ahsoka is adopting you, like she did me, because she knew our father and mother, and she wants to raise us well in their memory. The language is Mando'a, and we both need to learn it, because Ahsoka curses in it, and mutters in it."

Luke had to laugh at that last, then stared at both of them in surprise. "You knew my parents? I mean, our parents?"

"I did. So did Ben, and he's going to help teach you both. I suppose he is as much your uncle as I would be your aunt, because Anakin was our brother of the heart."

Leia moved closer to the boy, putting her arm around his shoulders. "You'll share my room. It's small, but it is big enough for you and me." She started guiding him back to the dwelling to get him settled in with his things, leaving Ahsoka to push to her feet and Ben to watch over them, trying to see how this would spin out.

"Stop worrying, Ben. I can shield them both still," she said. "And teach you better shielding while I am teaching them to do their own."

"Where'd you pick that trait up?"

"Master Fisto taught me a long time ago. I found his uncle, and improved on it, shortly after the Purge." She slipped closer to him, taking his hand. "Let's go clean up your sleeping area to get me a space in there, since she wants Luke in with her. Just because I sleep the least of all of us doesn't mean I want to take my naps on the couch all the time."

Ben nodded, and walked back with her, accepting how she was rearranging his life to suit herself. After all, she had the spark of the young, and still seemed to feel a purpose in life that wasn't just training the twins. No, when he looked at her, he kept seeing plans in her eyes, as her shoulders remain unbowed, even knowing what had happened to her 'brother'.

+++

They had spent a long night talking about those final days. It was nearly a month after the twins had been reunited, and Ben had set out Corellian ale for them to share once the pair had gone to sleep, transferred to their beds by Ahsoka's use of the Force. Ben had to admit that she was fair in her teaching methods, always aware of her young charges and their energy levels versus what they wanted to be able to do.

It had done Ben good to learn the truth behind the execution of the Jedi. That was the one balm, as his side of the story had hit Ahsoka hard, confronted with how far her beloved master had fallen.

"I'll face him someday." 

"Ahsoka, no!"

She looked at him evenly, despite having demolished at least half the bottle on her own before fetching out the last bottle of Shili 'wine', a drink that had made more than one trooper swear off drinking for the rest of their lives.

"It falls to me, Ben. Anakin would wish it. Vader probably expects it, if he's managed to piece together who Fulcrum is. Which makes the job harder, but not impossible." She drained her current glass and refilled it. "That means I need to go and train more, but I worry over the twins. I don't want them near my teachers in the Force."

"Oh?"

Ahsoka laughed, both a bitter sound, and one that was resigned. "Being hunted has made some strange allies for me, Ben. Asajj might be aging, but her coven of witches keep pushing me harder, every time I make it to her."

"Asajj?! Ventress?! Ahsoka, what in the Force were you… no, no, you just said. But Asajj?"

Ahsoka couldn't help but laugh until she was almost crying. "This, from you? Who flirted right back at her?" The woman shook her head, still laughing a little. "Oh, and that she was actually intrigued by you makes it even more golden."

"Really?" Ben reached up to stroke his whitened beard, considering that. 

"Really. It may have come up." Ahsoka's eyes twinkled merrily. "Around the time she convinced me into her bed."

"AHSOKA! I did not need to know that!" Ben started to chuckle though. "You were so like Anakin in so many things, but when it came to your, ahem, personal life, I must say you followed in my footsteps."

"Really?" Ahsoka's eyes danced merrily. "I tried to be casual about it. Normally succeeded at that." The one time she hadn't, though, had nearly destroyed her. Her face and lekku reflected that, as Ben reached over to gently pat her hand.

"No one saw that happening, 'Soka."

"I know. One more reason I walked away, to be honest," she told him. "Not only could I not trust the Order with my safety, but I couldn't trust them to see the dangers within." She pushed that away, firmly, with another drink of her glass. "Not thinking about that. Then I get mad. Or sad. Or both."

"Alright… so, was the boy a one-time thing?" Ben asked, pushing it back to the lighter topic. They had been through enough emotional explosions tonight.

"The boy… OH! You thought it was the boy too? No, it was always the girl!" Ahsoka gave a sad smile for her lost friend, one of many losses she had struggled to live up to their potential, in memory.

"The… oh, that does put a different light on how fierce you were after that mission." Ben sat back. "Is it always girls then?"

"Why, you applying to be the next?" Ahsoka asked him irreverently, just to watch him fumble with his cup and cough.

"Force, no, I'm old enough to be — "

"Not grandfather, for all you're starting to look it. Not old enough to be Plo's dad," she said, laughing again, and he had to join her in that, even though he thought he ought to be offended, at least a little.

"Oh, Ahsoka, I did miss you." He took a drink of his ale, and tipped his head to the side a little. "You didn't answer."

Ahsoka shrugged. "I don't care what they express as, physically or otherwise. It matters that I can meet them in a common place." She could see there was more in his face, questioning, and she smiled. "There have been boys. Not quite as lasting in most cases. But they can be fun for a night or three." She got a playful look on her face. "You can probably name or guess most of mine from when you knew me. Only fair that you cough up one or two, after that comment about me taking after you."

Ben sighed. "Walked into that one I suppose." He looked toward the children's sleeping room briefly, and Ahsoka let an eye-mark raise. 

"The Senator, the Queen, or the farmers?" she asked, getting a faint blush to rise on his cheeks.

"Definitely not the Lars. They are very narrow-minded."

Ahsoka nodded. "So Skyguy's taste for his politician came natural."

"And yours, miss-seduced-a-Senator," Ben retorted.

"I didn't seduce her. I gave her comfort," Ahsoka retaliated, before laughing softly. "Listen to us, comparing our history in that field."

"It's better than the earlier part of our night." Ben drained his cup. "But we, or at least I, should sleep. They have more energy than a pack of Jawas on a new salvage."

"No worse than I was at their age," she commented, but she finished her own wine, closing the bottle tightly, and stood. 

"No wonder Plo and Ti aged suddenly after you came to Temple," Ben teased her.

"HA! You never saw Ti on a Hunt." 

They went together to the bedroom, settling in for the night, the alcohol providing a small barrier against the pain of what they had stirred earlier in the evening.

At the first sound of restlessness from the bed, Ahsoka rose off her pallet, and slipped into it, fingers over Ben's lips to silence the immediate sleepy protest.

"Just to hold, Ben. We're not alone anymore, and you just went through hell in your memories," she told him, rolling to provide a shoulder for him. He hesitated a moment, then tucked along her side, giving in to the very human need to be held.

+++

Fulcrum took the encoded message and grimaced. In the year since she and the twins and Ben had settled as a family, she had been constantly looking over her shoulder, due to the unknown status of Bail Organa. It seemed, now, that she had been justified. She was glad she had finished her mission, as she streaked out of the spaceport, heading home to her wards, and the man that was guarding them. It was time to move, and that would also mean trying to convince Owen and Beru to move out ahead of the Imperial forces.

Somehow, she didn't think she would have much luck there, but she had to try.

+++

"We could have stayed to fight for them!"

Ben knew Ahsoka's patience was stretched to its thinnest point, as they had barely made it into hyperspace after a running battle.

"We left them there to die!"

The older Jedi could see the flicking anger and guilt in the tips of the lekku, having grown far more aware of that part of Ahsoka's language in their year together.

"Luke."

His quiet voice reached out, dragging the boy's attention around, away from the victim of his young pain. The look on his face was so much like Anakin's that Ben's heart ached all over again for the loss. 

"What?"

"Ahsoka was late getting to us because she was trying to convince your uncle and aunt to move, to come with us," Ben said. "She commed me hours before her arrival, to get you two packed up, and our belongings, as you should know, given that I made you and Leia do that."

"We could have fought," Luke protested.

"That force, my dear boy, was merely the distraction, the delaying tactic," Ben explained. "They expected us to fight, to get bogged down and keep us there long enough for an Inquisitor to arrive."

That made Luke's eyes go wide. He had helped, along with Leia, to take care of Ahsoka's extensive injuries a few months before, after she had run afoul of a full team of Inquisitors. He looked over guiltily, still able to make out the blue chevrons that were marred in their design by scars on the rear lek.

"Will they kill my aunt and uncle?"

"I do not know," Ben admitted. "They may only interrogate them, to learn what they can of us."

Luke swallowed hard, then nodded sadly. "Okay." 

Ben watched the face turn to such determination that he almost feared for the galaxy, before he remembered that Luke, unlike Anakin, had an open and loving support net around him, to keep him firmly in the light.

"Luke, why don't we go settle our things in our cabin?" Leia suggested, understanding that the boy was hurting, and, unlike her, he'd never really had to be as controlled as was needed. She could feel Ahsoka's patience fraying as well, knew that their guardian was barely keeping her anger in check. Luke nodded, glumly, and joined his sister, leaving the pilot cabin to the adults.

"Thank you," Ahsoka said, breathing out harshly. "I was not handling his criticism of my failings well, when I wished we could have stayed and fought for them."

"I know." Ben reached out and rubbed her montral closest to him. It helped calm her, he had learned, and he remembered seeing Anakin do it for her when she was still young and it had barely budded out. "But we have to protect them, and serve the greater galaxy at large."

She turned to eye him briefly. "You joining the Rebellion, old man?" she asked, forcing herself toward the irreverence that served as her shield.

"Given that the Empire just ruined my exile, I do believe so."

She laughed, brightening with a sharp edge to it. "Well, let's make the most of it, then," she said.

"Where are we going?" Ben asked after she settled back from the controls.

"Dantooine, for now. You need to prepare for seeing clones, Ben. Because that's where I've been sending the ones I have found that were free… or that I freed after the fact."

He drew in a deep breath in answer to that, and then nodded briefly. "I'll get by. Why there?"

"Time for Luke to start pilot lessons with Wolffe, and Leia needs to sharpen her blaster practice with Rex. Gregor can help me brush up on my demolitions, and both twins need basic military strategy lessons. We'll stay there a little while, let them get some non-Jedi lessons for a while, then move on."

Ben had to admit that sounded like a solid plan, even if he was going to be fighting not to see Cody around every corner one they got there.

+++

Ahsoka glared at Ben, and he glared at her. Years of living together, fighting together, training together had brought them to a level of familiarity that allowed for little in the way of secrets or lies.

"You cannot be serious in this plan," he hissed at her, his hair gone fully white now framing a face that was flushed with emotion.

"I'd rather it was Riyo taking Leia, but humans and non-humans are highly segregated these days," Ahsoka said. "Mon Mothma is the better choice for her to learn politics. As for Luke, he's your padawan; do you really think arguing with him over his plan is going to get either of us anywhere?"

"They're fourteen years old!"

Ahsoka just crossed her arms and **looked** at him. Ben reached up and rubbed his face as he realized that argument was highly ineffective with a woman that started in a full-fledged war at that age. The thirty-one year old Togruta had been fighting for seventeen years and wasn't going to lay down arms until she either beat the Empire, or they killed her.

"I would hope we were wiser than that," Ben pointed out, trying to modulate his tone and physical language to possibly win her over. A glance at her lekku told him he was failing miserably.

"Padmé and Breha's daughter has a mind for politics," Ahsoka said firmly. "I trust Mon to teach her what is needed, and it is safer than letting her Naboo family take her in to do the same. There, the resemblance would be seen. As for Luke, joining Garven Dreis's fighter pilots is the best way to get him experience and let him get into the fight in a way where he has a safety net. Else, one of us will probably be chasing him down on some foolish mission to take on the Empire by himself.

"Garven respected Skyguy, has no idea about Vader, and will do all he can to hone Luke without letting him get in over his head," Ahsoka finished up.

"Where does that leave you and I?" Ben asked, even as he felt himself capitulating. 

"Garven has a base ship for his flotilla. You can go with Luke, keep training him. Leia… is going to have to make a rendezvous with me from time to time, because I cannot walk openly on Chandrila. It's too Core."

"And yet you are letting Leia go there," Ben pointed out. Ahsoka made a frustrated gesture.

"You're not listening to any of the three of us! It's not about allowing, Ben! It's about following the path we feel the Force moving in!" She stalked over to start throwing a few of her things into a pack, making it clear she was done with the discussion. Ben almost let her get away with it… then remembered how many times he had parted from people, never to see them again in good circumstances. He walked over and caught her hand, exerting a small tug until she gave up and turned into his hold, letting him tuck in against her shoulder and lek. 

He wasn't happy, but as he held her, he realized neither was she, but she was too much a part of the Force to ignore its guidance.

"You still didn't mention where you would be," he said, some time much later.

"Wherever the Force wills me to be."

+++

Leia was plotting a new rebellious uprising with Mon Mothma when it hit her. Luke stumbled in the middle of climbing up into his X-Wing.

Ben felt an ache in his chest, and dropped his eyes before anyone could see the tears there.

It would be days before any of the three heard the name 'Malachor'. There would be some satisfaction to know Vader had not been seen in that time, but for each of the family, there was grief.

Until not one, but all three, became obsessed with the visions of Ahsoka in their troubled sleep, less than a ten-day later.

Luke borrowed a bigger ship, taking Ben to acquire Leia, all three of them aware they needed the girl in order to get their answers. Leia was all but silent as she fell into her brother's arms, leaving Ben to start the journey for them. They had the coordinates, and Ben didn't want to know how violent Rex had gotten with either Kanan or Ezra to get them… then again, Rex might have threatened Chopper for them, if they had gotten the whole story correctly.

The idea that Maul was still living was nothing, not compared to the idea that Ahsoka was trapped. For all that each of them had thought they felt her die, the visions seemed to say otherwise.

"What if this is a trap?" Luke asked. "Something manipulating the Force, to draw us in? Like what they did with that Jedi's body, to lure Kanan in?"

Ben looked at him even as Leia glared. "We spring it, and then we will know. She deserves a proper pyre, no matter what."

"Alright," Luke said, rubbing his cheek against Leia's to calm her down.

+++

They found her deep inside the lower levels of the Temple, guided by Leia. The girl's bond to her mentor was stronger than ever, a fact they needed as the labyrinthine tunnels closed in around them. Ahsoka was curled in a fetal position, and at first Luke feared she was dead.

It was Leia who dispelled that notion, dropping down beside the Togruta fearlessly, not quite touching her.

"Snips."

One word, and Ben had to smile against the tears. Of course the trigger word would not be the real name. The Empire would have that name, and might know it was common to break trance with a full name being called. But only one man would still know the other name, and it was doubtful he could ever voice it.

Ahsoka's tiny cry of pain had all three in motion as the woman unfolded, her injuries clearly having been life-threatening before the trance and still needing aid to save her. Leia unabashedly was crying, despite being the stone-faced strong one of their family. It was relief that colored her tears, though, as it did for all of them.

+++

Ben saw the twins out of the cabin, then turned and looked at Ahsoka, sitting up in the bed, her color still so far from good as to not be in the same sector.

"Where the Force needs you is not getting yourself nearly killed," he told her, coming to sit on the other side of the bed.

"Tell that to Yoda," she said, before unfolding the events that had led to the visit to a forbidden planet, and the duel she had gotten locked in.

"We felt you die," Ben finally said, as she trailed off, with the collapse of the Temple.

"I think I did," she told him soberly. "And I don't think the Force was pleased by it. Because I remember falling through a fissure in the temple floor, and then blacking out. When I came to, my injuries were caked over with blood, and I felt so weak. But I had to get to a safe point, in case Maul or Ana… Vader had made it out alive."

The slip on name made Ben frown, then he settled an arm carefully around her shoulders. "You're certain that him calling you wasn't a trick?" he asked, focusing on that part of the fight's narrative.

"I am."

Ben frowned, then looked into her eyes, as she looked his way. "You have a plan," he said softly.

"Only if the twins are willing to help me," she promised him, before closing her eyes. "Keep me safe so I can sleep?"

He knew she meant against the old bond, and against the Force itself, with its ideas on where she was needed. "I'll do my best, 'Soka." He slid down with her in the bed, and let her settle against him, spreading out his own shields to guard her.

+++

Ben decided he should never, ever underestimate the power of family. Was this why the Jedi Order had failed, because they had denied it? 

It had taken nearly three months of intensive rehabilitation to get Ahsoka back to her peak ability. Leia and Luke had assisted with that, both practicing Force Healing under Obi-Wan's tutelage and by exercising with Ahsoka, curbing her worst impulses to rush.

Another full month had gone into tracing Darth Vader's whereabouts. Ben was taken along solely as a pilot and potential reinforcement. He never did get the full details of what had happened in the meeting, though he was able to see that there had been at least a short fight. Not a one of the three had escaped without injury, though Leia's might have seemed worst on his conscience. The bruising on her throat was livid, brought on by Vader's maddened attack before Luke had managed to break them apart.

Now he was staring into the fathomless pit of Vader's helmet, trying to find words for their past… and Vader simply ignored him as if he did not exist.

"Set course for Imperial City, son," Vader rasped, and Luke obeyed, even as Ahsoka moved to let the black-clad menace take the co-pilot seat. She settled with Leia close at hand, working on healing the marks of a man whose love had been twisted into a weapon. The only thing that soothed Ben's nerves at all was that Ahsoka looked patently uneasy, as if still not convinced, despite it being her plan, that they weren't delivering the twins into a trap.

"Give Arseven the codes he'll need, Vader," Ahsoka said, not quite in a commanding tones, and the armored man turned to look at the astromech. With a hiss of his breathing apparatus, he moved towards the droid and complied as Luke set their course for a fate that none of them could see.

+++

Leia held her hand to the heavy canvas she was using to stop Ahsoka's lung from collapsing, while Luke tried to help the man they both knew to be their biological father. The Emperor was dead, but in that moment, Leia almost felt it was not worth it; she didn't want to lose another parent!

The black-gloved hand crept out from the dying man, a reach for his former apprentice or maybe for her, and Leia nearly flinched, remembering the vice grip on her throat when he had thought her to be a deception. 

"Move… her… closer. She must not die." Vader's voice was ragged, the suit all but defunct at this point from the lightning. "Luke… cut… the arm… high, so… skin is exposed."

"But father—"

"I am dying. Let me… give her… what I can."

Uncertain, but hopeful to save one of them, the twins worked to make a flesh connection between the pair of former Jedi. Vader could not turn his head to see her, yet he did not need to, as he willed what was left of his life-force to Ahsoka Tano, one last fight for her sake.

Even Leia's eyes were wet when the suit gave a last, wheezing gasp, and Darth Vader ceased to be. Leia did not stop at that, though, even as she could feel the surge of energy through her mentor. Luke, less adept with healing, did try, and between them, they managed to get Ahsoka's injuries down from critical to stable.

Neither of them dared look toward Ben's body, as he had died before the Emperor fell. They were left with their unconscious teacher on a world that had been under the Emperor's fist for too long to know what freedom tasted like.

"Come…"

Looking up, they saw a squad of men that looked like Rex and Wolffe and Gregor, helmets at their sides, waiting for orders from the one that had spoken. 

"We won't be arrested," Leia said, defiantly standing with her hand going for the hilt of her lightsaber.

"No, Princess. Lord Vader left us instructions, to be here, to aid the survivors," the leader told her. "I swear… my name is Coric. I can say that again. And I swear by all my brothers, Vader's Fist, the 501st, is at your service. We may not have much left of who we were, but we are, as always, loyal to the man that led us."

"Can your men carry the bodies, or…" Luke asked, swallowing hard. For answer, four split off, two to each fallen man, while two others came to get Ahsoka. That left Coric and one other to aid the twins in defense, as they all knew the chance of a fight was still strong

+++

The funeral pyre was lit on Tatooine, in the burned out property that had once been Luke's home. Ahsoka would have liked to take Anakin's body to Naboo, but there would have been too many questions. Instead, she intended to take the ashes, even those of Kenobi, for the pair were burned together, there once she was fully healed.

She was still struggling with the idea that Vader's last effort had been to heal her, and that he had prepared his legion to save them.

That the legion held familiar faces, men that had committed brutal acts under Vader's command, but had once served alongside her in honor, was one more pain to attend to. Not all of the 501st were clones, but those that were had vouched for their flesh-born brethren.

The galaxy was falling into a new, different strife, but now, hope burned brightly at the edges, for the Rebellion was moving in swiftly to tackle the power vacuum. What emerged would be anyone's guess, but the twins both still had hopes of guiding it. Luke would fly and fight for the Rebellion, and Leia was more than ready to help lead, as drawn to the political sphere as her mothers and one father.

They might, someday, even find if Bail had died under interrogation, or if he was languishing in a prison. Leia had vowed to find answers, in her heart.

For now, though, Ahsoka watched the fire consuming the two men that had been her guidance as a padawan. She then glanced to the twins, and knew they were her mission, until death finally claimed her fully.

Beyond the flames, unseen by the grieving family, her Jedi family watched the flames peacefully. They could rest in peace, knowing the future was bright with the promise of their legacy coming to full maturity under her guidance.


End file.
